Magazine

The skills that a liberal arts degree helps Oles develop can take them far in life. The Piper Center’s new Ole Career Launcher is designed to accelerate that trajectory. In this profile, Matthew Myers ’22 shares his experience with the Ole Career Launcher’s Strategy Case Challenge.

When Matthew Myers ’22 joined the Strategy Case Challenge track as part of Ole Career Launcher, he was excited to build on his already robust preparation for a consulting career. Myers, a mathematics and quantitative economics major, was president of the St. Olaf Management Consulting Club and interned at the Big Four professional service firm KPMG.

The Strategy Case Challenge offered an array of practical and real-world experiences he’s valued. As part of the track, he led two distinct projects for companies: a product launch for a stationery company, and financial projections and modeling for an aquaculture company. 

While the deliverables for the projects — slide decks and supporting Excel models — drew on the quantitative skills he’d learned in his major, he adds that the broader coursework he had as part of his St. Olaf education also was essential.

“The communication skills I developed in my classes, from papers in my English classes or debates in my American Conversations class, have been really helpful during the consulting project,” he says. “Those are soft skills that are continually underappreciated in the world, but they’re essential when I’m collaborating with the team or the CEO of a company.”

Next up? Myers landed a position at Analysis Group, an economic consulting firm in Menlo Park, California. “The Strategy Case Challenge was something I brought up in my interviews,” he says. “I’m convinced it helped me receive the offer.”

The Strategy Case Challenge was something I brought up in my interviews. I’m convinced it helped me receive the offer.Matthew Myers ’22